Wednesday, 29 November 2017

It's December in 2 days and things are getting crazy in LittleMissK Land! Nowhere near ready and getting pretty antsy now to get my craft room back, but hurrah ... the plumber is coming next week!

Last week I spoke about my Santa Wreath and I have photos to share but first - what's on my work table this week?

I'm experimenting with paper decorations! I came across an old blog from 2009 via Pinterest for paper bells and was intrigued. Very easy to make and I love them! I also experimented making a rosette star. I intend having a small tree in my craft room and want to decorate it with Papercraft goodies. I'll create a video for next week

So, my wreath came together nicely. Here's a pic I used for my Pinterest (hence the logo)

I also have a dark shot so you can see the lights better

And here's the video. I did say in the video that my wreath ring was 12" circumference, when in fact it was 12" diameter! Oh and apologies for the number of times I use the word "so" .... apparently every body has a word they use a lot and I guess mines "so" .... so, hope you enjoy

Monday, 27 November 2017

Today I spent some time making the swap cards for next month's ABC of Christmas for UKPC (FB group). Cant share them yet, but will blog them once they're sent.

It's my son-in-laws birthday next month so decided to get ahead and made his card. He is a very clever young man who is currently building an extension to their house by himself (other than having electricians and plumbers in to certify his work). He's just completed a huge shower room, part of the extension.

Anyway, I thought he might like the Wood Textures paper I used on his card. I went a bit crazy with the stamping, but I'm sure he'll love it 😊

Wednesday, 22 November 2017

Whats on my workdesk today? Not much. I had a flurry of activity Monday and yesterday but today I have to work so this will be a very short post!

My desk is showing my next project which will have to wait a day or two. I'm going to attempt a Christmas wreath. It'll be different to the usual green foliage though and I will share more next week I promise!

Other projects this week were birthday cards and my swap to a fellow crafter over on UKPC (UK Paper Crafters) run by the lovely BJ who is also a WOYWWer here.

The swap theme was "Three's" so I made a trifold card and added elements of three including three sentiments, three stamped snowflakes and clusters of stamped mini triangles (they have three sides!)

To go along with the Three theme were the birthday cards. Funny coincidence that my sister, bro-i-law and nephew all have birthdays within three days of each other!

I'd like to send a big thank you to Shaz who joined me this week. A fellow WOYWWer who is definitely worth a visit!

Wednesday, 15 November 2017

Hi CraftersThis week I am in full crafting mode preparing for a one2one crafting session with my lovely hairdresser Michelle. She was so keen after our last lesson (way back in September), that she immediately booked another one so she could learn how to make gift boxes. She had a couple of ideas recently for what she'd like to make - one of which I had already thought of and prepped for! Great minds, eh!!Anyway, todays WOYWW is my advent calendar - still under construction, but it'll be finished by the end of today

Although technically not on my desk when this was taken, Its back there now. This was just to get a nice pic of it without all the background clutter.So, the advent calendar. This time last year, i would never have guessed I'd be measuring out card and making such things! I was a strictly cards person, but after experimenting I've decided I like all things 3D too.

I used a 5" x 6 1/2" piece of cardscored on long edge at 1 1/2"; 3"; 4 1/2"; 6"on short edge scored at 1 1/2"; 3", 4 1/2"

Folded and pressed, then cut away as shown.

Added some DSP and added Fast Fuse adhesive to flap at side of card

I have to say, this Fuse stuff is the bees knees for attaching card together! It sticks instantly and is as strong as wet glue. For the rest of the project I used my Tombow glue, which I love. You hardly need any to glue together. I found a box of 10 of them on Amazon so have enough to last for ages now.

Anyway, back to the boxes. I glued the base together as shown, pressing down inside to make sure it was stuck.

24 little boxes!

Next I made tiny finger holes to be able to open the boxes easily. I used a 1/2" circle punch for this. I also made a small matching groove in the box frontI've glued the boxes in strips as follows: Base row 3 boxes, then 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 to creat e a tree shape. I haven't glued the rows together as yetSo there you go - What's On Your Work-desk Wednesday? An advent calendar ... well almost!

Saturday, 11 November 2017

Hello crafty folk,Today I'm showing how I made the little swaps for the extended team I belong to Julies Jems. I'll be meeting them for the first time at the weekend when I go to Stampin Ups Onstage event in Solihull. Normally, I sit at my current craft desk - aka the dining room table - but I wanted to get on with the gluing while my dad was visiting on Sunday, so I sat in the lounge with a tray on my lap.

I used Fresh Fig and Tranquil Tide, I love those two colours.

To make:

Cut card to 5 1/4" x 3"

With long side at top of score board, score at 3/4", 2 1/4", 3" and 4 1/2"

Wednesday, 8 November 2017

Today has been a series of "firsts" - my first decorated candle, my first visit to the WOYWW community and my first go at editing a video. That's for another blog post though, so if you're interested - watch this space!!I have great plans for a Crafty Christmas .... provided my craft room is finished in time. Its currently a building site, and has been so since back in August when I first packed everything away, allowing my husband the room to make a few changes in there before completely redecorating. He is a slow DIYer and we've both had a lot of other things which have deterred us from getting the room done. To give him his due, dear hubby has removed a 'built in' cupboard, given me flash new chrome electric sockets and redecorated which was no easy task with the colours that were in there before! So for now, I craft on our dining room table. I have brought a lot of my supplies downstairs so the dining room is a bit of a no-go area.Anyway, so to my first photo showing said table in all its crafty glory!

I thought I'd better make a start on those Crafty Christmas presents, so today its a practise run at decorating candles. I used a fir tree stamp and a sentiment from another stamp set (both from Stampin Up). I'd watched a few YouTube tutorials some time back and for my first attempt I was quite pleased.

I stamped the tree first, then the sentiment either side.I used some white tissue paper to stamp onto, then cut out the tree leaving a very small border all way round. Placed it on the candle, then wrapped baking paper round tautly before using my heat gun to gently soften the candle enough for the tissue paper to adhere to the wax.

A word of warning, its best to try and grip the baking paper round the back of the candle. I didn't at first and it got very hot, very quickly!If you look very closely, you can see where I slightly overheated the bottom of the candle on the right of the tree. Its a learning process, so hopefully my next attempt will be better.

So there you have it, a Christmas Candle.

As with all candles, if you try this at home make sure not to leave a candle burning unattended. I have no idea what will happen to the tissue paper as the candle melts, I'm hoping it'll melt down inside so the tissue paper doesn't touch the flame itself

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About me

Hi,

I'm Karen and I am a craft-a-holic! I have a lot of interests from knitting and sewing to paper-crafting to natural cosmetics etc. If you can make it at home, I'm interested.

My blog is mostly paper-crafting as I am an Independent Stampin Up! demonstrator but I will also share my other passions too from time to time. I love sharing my crafting and have recently started organising workshops and classes.

I'm married to Steve and we have three wonderful grown up children, a lovely son-in-law and a beautifulsoon to be daughter-in-law. We are also the proud grandparents to four grandchildren - three little boys and one little girl who thinks the world should be pink!

I work part time in our local library. When not working I will be found visiting my father, or my daughter and her little ones, or at my craft table. Housework comes a poor second I'm afraid.